Christ\u00admas Eve draws to a close and I can hear rein\u00addeer in the dis\u00adtance, so I\u2019m sign\u00ading off for the night.<\/p>\n
\nIn those days a decree went out from Emper\u00ador Augus\u00adtus that all the world should be reg\u00adis\u00adtered. This was the first reg\u00adis\u00adtra\u00adtion and was tak\u00aden while Quirinius was gov\u00ader\u00adnor of Syr\u00adia. All went to their own towns to be reg\u00adis\u00adtered. Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Beth\u00adle\u00adhem, because he was descend\u00aded from the house and fam\u00adi\u00adly of David. He went to be reg\u00adis\u00adtered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expect\u00ading a child. While they were there, the time came for her to deliv\u00ader her child. And she gave birth to her first\u00adborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.<\/p>\n
In that region there were shep\u00adherds liv\u00ading in the fields, keep\u00ading watch over their flock by night. Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glo\u00adry of the Lord shone around them, and they were ter\u00adri\u00adfied. But the angel said to them, \u2018Do not be afraid; for see\u2014I am bring\u00ading you good news of great joy for all the peo\u00adple: to you is born this day in the city of David a Sav\u00adior, who is the Mes\u00adsi\u00adah, the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.\u2019 And sud\u00adden\u00adly there was with the angel a mul\u00adti\u00adtude of the heav\u00aden\u00adly host, prais\u00ading God and say\u00ading, \u2018Glo\u00adry to God in the high\u00adest heav\u00aden, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!\u2019 When the angels had left them and gone into heav\u00aden, the shep\u00adherds said to one anoth\u00ader, \u2018Let us go now to Beth\u00adle\u00adhem and see this thing that has tak\u00aden place, which the Lord has made known to us.\u2019 So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; and all who heard it were amazed at what the shep\u00adherds told them. But Mary trea\u00adsured all these words and pon\u00addered them in her heart. The shep\u00adherds returned, glo\u00adri\u00adfy\u00ading and prais\u00ading God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Luke 2, NRSV<\/p>\n
Mer\u00adry CHRIST\u00admas. Enjoy the rest of your break\u2013Paula and I look for\u00adward to see\u00ading you all when Win\u00adter Quar\u00adter kicks back off! Don\u2019t for\u00adget to pray for us at Win\u00adter Con\u00adfer\u00adence<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Christ\u00admas Eve draws to a close and I can hear rein\u00addeer in the dis\u00adtance, so I\u2019m sign\u00ading off for the night. In those days a decree went out from Emper\u00ador Augus\u00adtus that all the world should be reg\u00adis\u00adtered. This was the first reg\u00adis\u00adtra\u00adtion and was tak\u00aden while Quirinius was gov\u00ader\u00adnor of Syr\u00adia. All went to \u2026 Con\u00adtin\u00adue read\u00ading \u201cMer\u00adry Christ\u00admas!\u201d<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spiritual-growth"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Ded-ff","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/945","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=945"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/945\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}